TCP/IP Protocol is a protocol for managing a network such as an SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). At present, TCP/IP Protocol is not limited for TCP/IP based networks but is also widely used as a network management protocol of a network based on a protocol other than the TCP/IP.
Usually, in the network management based on the SNMP, an MIB (Management Information Base) which a network device (agent) as a management target has is accessed by using the SNMP protocol from a PC (manager) for managing the network device, thereby making management. The MIB has a data structure like a tree and identifiers such as object IDs which can be unconditionally identified have been allocated to all nodes. Such a structure of the MIB is called SMI (Structure for Management Information) and has been specified in RFC1155, “Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP-based Internets”.
As a method for efficiently finding various resources (printer, copying apparatus, server, scanner, etc.) on the network and using them, a method called a directory service has been provided. The directory service is, as it were, a directory (telephone book) regarding the network and used to store various information. As specific examples of the directory service, there are an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) specified in RFC1777 and an NDS (Netware Directory Service) of Novell Co., Ltd. In the case of an environment in which the directory service cannot be used, the network device can be searched by using SNMP broadcast.
In a conventional network device management system, for example, the network device connected to the network can be searched by using the SNMP/MIB or the directory service and a state of the network device and various information set in the network device can be displayed and changed.
In recent years, a Web application has vigorously been developed so that the following effects are obtained: the user can access network management information unitarily managed on a server PC (server computer) from a plurality of client PCs (client computers) via a Web browser, browse a list of the network devices connected to the network, browse and change the states of the network devices and various information set therein, and the like. In this instance, the Web server and the Web browser communicate by an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
As one of functions of such a Web application, there is a function of arranging and displaying icons (device icons) indicative of the network devices as management targets onto a virtual map so that actual installing locations of the network devices can be recognized. In the specification, such a function or the map formed by the function is called a “device map”. Such a function is effective at the time of confirming the installing locations of the network devices in case of occurrence of an error (for example, paper jam or absence of paper) such that the user or an administrator of the network has to go to the installing location of the failed network device as a management target and take some measures, or the like.